


it drives you crazy, getting old

by craftingdead



Series: charlie will make cd a common tag if it kills them [13]
Category: The Crafting Dead
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, basically what happened the night after the white house exploded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 12:17:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15412734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/craftingdead/pseuds/craftingdead
Summary: Even with the group hiding the monument, a small fire between the circle of bodies attempting to escape the cold, Uni’s nose still burned and his breath still fanned out in front of him. Jin had scavenged some gloves and a coat or two for them, muttering something about hypothermia, but those went to the ones wearing the least. Uni wasn’t one of them.





	it drives you crazy, getting old

It was freezing out.

Even with the group hiding the monument, a small fire between the circle of bodies attempting to escape the cold, Uni’s nose still burned and his breath still fanned out in front of him. Jin had scavenged some gloves and a coat or two for them, muttering something about hypothermia, but those went to the ones wearing the least. Uni wasn’t one of them.

Two pairs of gloves for AK and Cory, ear warmers for Jin himself, a sheet wrapped around Jess’s back, tied at the front, and a large, fuzzy jacket thrown over Nick. He probably wouldn’t have needed it under normal circumstances, but he was shivering so hard when they entered that Uni took pity and threw the jacket that Jin got—which was originally intended for him—over the younger boy’s shoulders. He nodded in a silent thank you and fell back to Ghetto’s side, eyes glazed over. Jin said it was the shock of what happened in the White House with Sky and Ross. Uni didn’t doubt it.

Uni barely knew these people, meeting them when Nick and Ghetto attempted to break into his and Cory’s base and steal all of their shit and then immediately being greeted with the fact that the White House might go up in flames and there’s a mad doctor on the loose and _sorry, forgot to mention this to you but he’s also the creator of the virus and hates us!_ It was insane. But yet, Uni took pity.

That pity only deepened when he looked over at the small leader, curled up and fast asleep in Ghetto’s lap with the latter having buried his face in Nick’s hair. The moment between them was personal, intimate, yet they didn’t care if others saw or cared. They didn’t.

Across from them was Sergeant Cory, staring into the fire with dull eyes. Next to him, Jess, the sheet fanned out like a cape. Then AK, Uni himself, the couple, Shark, Jin. Everyone was quiet.

(He had finally figured out all of their names and connected them to appearances. The group had a lot more people than he’d thought, yet fewer people than he’d believed. It was weird, like their group. Uni liked it, if he was being honest.)

What annoyed Uni was the silence.

Everyone was quiet as hell! No one was talking, no one was discussing their next move or what they should do here, everyone was just wallowing in their own grief and self-pity! This wasn’t how a functional group worked, this was how several idiots got themselves killed! Uni was a General, for fuck's sake, he needed organization, he needed plans, thoughts, ideas, and this was getting them nowhere.

So, while their leader was out of commission, Uni would take charge. He was a General (for fuck's sake!), after all. So he leaned forward, doing his best to address the rest of the group, and said, “Would anyone like to explain to me what the fuck just happened?”

It was perfect!

He was met with silence.

Uni was irritated now. Where would they get if the group refused to address their problems? “I’m bloody serious, what the fuck just—”

“White House exploded, Sky and Ross are motherfucking dead, and we’re on our own now. Happy?” Ghetto mumbled, raising his head from Nick’s hair and glaring at Uni and then retaking his spot when Uni looked away. The rest of the group tensed, his words reminding them of the horrible events that occurred just hours before. It was stupid.

“So? What are we going to do now? Sulking around a fire when it’s cold as a witch’s titty in a brass—nevermind that, but sitting around doing absolutely _jack_ is not going to help us!”

“What can we do?” Jess raised her head now, eyes bloodshot. “Sky’s dead, the White House is gone, we’re practically doomed!” At that last note, she let out a small sob and buried her face in the sheet. AK reached over and rested a reassuring hand on her back, now also glaring at Uni.

Jesus Christ. “What is Sky, a saint or something? The world doesn’t revolve around him, life doesn’t revolve around him, and neither should yours! I don’t care if this is some sort of teenage angst after losing your high and mighty Sky, but Christ, woman, we need to think on a larger scale! And that doesn’t include thinking with your heart right now!” Uni exclaimed, slamming a hand on the ground.

The room jumped, startled at Uni’s sudden movement, and turned their eyes to him. Jess was now blinking back tears, and Ghetto growled at him, gesturing to the sleeping Nick in his arms and pulling him closer. Uni whispered a small _“Sorry”_ and turned back to Jess. “I’m sorry for my words, they might not have been the nicest, but it’s true!”

“Then what do you propose we do, General?” Shark said, spitting sarcasm with his last word. Uni had absolutely zero percent of these people's respect by now but damn it, if he wasn’t going to try!

“I’m not saying we should do anything drastic right now, but we really need to think of the future! This fire won’t last us forever, and we need food, better shelter, supplies, and some sort of short-term plan because I don’t think your leader is in any condition to be working on _anything_.”

The room was quiet. Then, Jin cleared his throat. “Uni—sorry, may I call you that?” When Uni nodded, he continued. “Uni’s right. We need supplies, as a majority of ours had been in the White House and, well, we all saw what happened to that. And, I don’t know what happened on the roof with Ross and Sky but it freaked Nick out. He’s in no condition to be making drastic decisions.”

Uni shot a smug look at Shark who huffed and turned away. Cory flashed him a thumbs-up and Uni grinned back.

“Not to be a poor sport or anything but...” AK butted in, leaning over the fire, “...but Jess was right to worry about Sky, Uni. I know you meant well by drawing the conversation away from him and making Jess cry but we really need to think on the possibility that they might not, uh, might not be _dead_ , if you get my drift.”

“The hell you talking about?”

“I mean, knowing Ross and his experiments, the two of them might be alive. We don’t know what Ross might’ve injected into Sky or even himself, being honest.”

“Aw shit, that’s a thing we need to worry about now?” Cory said, groaning.

“Yes,” AK replied. “Also, that explosion was loud as hell, it probably attracted even more walkers. Or even people.”

“The hell you suggesting?” Ghetto was up now, adjusting Nick to face away from the fire and pulling him into his chest. It was evident that Ghetto really did not want them or anyone to wake him up. The kid deserved the rest.

“I’m suggesting that we might have to deal with other people—”

“Fuckin’ finally, I’m getting bored of you assholes.”

“—and those people may not be the most helpful.” AK waited before the snickers caused by Ghetto’s outburst died down before continuing with his thought, saying, “I’m not jumping to any conclusions, but we should be prepared for more people to show up. And if there’s one group that would be attracted to a giant explosion, it would be Red’s.”

The outcry of “No way!”, “Fuck no!”, “That can’t be possible…” and a hysterical sob from Jess’s end flooded the room as Uni and Cory shared a confused look. Who the hell was Red? The noise only quieted down with Nick let out a small noise of discomfort and shifted further into Ghetto’s chest, issuing a loud _“Shhh!_ ” from him.

“Red can’t be back! He can’t!” Jess cried, openly sobbing now. Shark had moved from his spot next to Jin to her, rearing back as Jess shoved her head into his shoulder and wailed, awkwardly patting her head. Poor girl.

“Alright, I think that’s enough of that. We can continue this conversation in the morning, it has gone off the rails in so many different ways,” Uni said, uncomfortably averting his eyes from the sobbing woman back to AK. He seemed to be the most collected.

AK nodded, and opened his arms towards Shark, jerking his head towards the fire. Shark let Jess tumble into AK (she ended up crawling away to cry in her own little corner a few seconds later) and moved back to his spot. By this time the fire had nearly died out, desperately trying to stay lit as the winter wind blew over it. He blew it out.

**Author's Note:**

> edit: i started up a tumblr/discord prompt series w/ mcyt so check that out if you want!  
> ribs - lorde


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